.-AdiiLo-.

Original Release Date : August 13, 2014 Genre : Action-RPG Mode : Solo Platforms : PlayStation 4, Linux, Microsoft Windows, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, macOS, Wii U, PlayStation Vita, Mac OS Developers : Dreadlocks Ltd , Dreadlocks Limited Publishers : Dreadlocks Ltd , QubicGames , WhisperGames , Techland , BadLand Publishing , Dreadlocks Limited As a setting, I’ve always thought of cyberpunk as the most interesting in the sci-fi spectrum. Augmentations, drugs and grimy inner cities… what’s not to love? There have been some incredible cyberpunk games over the years (the Deus Ex series immediately jumps to mind) and it’s fair to say that there’s a lot of excitement for a certain upcoming cyberpunk game this year. In the run up to CD Projekt RED’s vast new game, Dreadlocks have brought another cyberpunk game to the Switch: Dex. You play as the titular Dex, a blue-haired young woman being hunted by a powerful organisation due to her ability to hack into systems using only her mind. With the guidance of legendary hacking activitist Raycast, Dex will need to use her powers, an array of weapons, and a misfit group of allies to survive and escape her pursuers. Dex is a likeable and witty character in her own right, but her allies and acquaintances are even more interesting. You’ll cross paths with all manner of drug addicts, conspiracy theorists and prostitutes, each with their own charm and often with a problem they’ll need your help with. You’ll spend as much time with these side-quests as you do trying to overcome your shady enemies, and the shorter stories told within are some of the most compelling in Dex. Helping a waitress get her drugged up brother out of a brothel, or stopping a stalker from ruining a singer’s career are rewarding experiences both narratively and in terms of loot and experience. Similarly to its cyberpunk predecessor Deus Ex, in Dex confrontations can be overcome in a vast number of ways. Sometimes conversations and checking a few private emails will get you where you need to be, but sometimes more aggressive action is needed. For these more dangerous moments, you can go into a building guns blazing, use stealth to take out foes one by one, or even hack your enemies to stun them and beat them to death. Although the number of options you have to overcome your foes is impressive, the actual combat in Dex is very underwhelming. Clost quarters combat involves throwing a punch or a divekick and hoping the enemy doesn’t block it. Gunplay isn’t much better, with enemies taking so many shots to kill that you’ll just be standing next to each other watching your health bars lower with each shot. Be it fisticuffs or a shootout, it never feels like your skill has much of an effect on the outcome of a fight to the death. If you’re trying to avoid the lackluster combat, you’ll be doing a lot of extra hacking. When hacking you control a little blue node in a virtual world and, in a twin stick shooter twist, you’ll need to blast the security systems of the network. The futuristic orbs and turrets you encounter are a pain to destroy. Any projectiles they fire are so fast that avoiding them is difficult and frustrating, especially around blind corners or just off screen. If you’re able to get around these annoying obstacles, you’ll be able to find information you need to progress quests when hacking, as well as disable security systems and find XP. Since you can’t always rely on your skill to keep Dex alive, you’ll need to level her up. There are many ways you can choose to improve our protagonist, from the standard health and combat upgrades, to learning to lock pick, convince or barter better. You’ll also get access to mods to augment Dex with (because this is a cyberpunk game after all) for further improvements. Again some of these are stat based, but others can have more interesting effects like complete electricity resistance or increased jump height for exploring. Walking the neon-lit streets of the city is very rewarding, with side-quests and spectacular visuals on every corner. There are plenty of shops and bars to spend your hard-earned money in too, to stock up on weapons and consumables. The 2D environments have a real sense of verticality to them, and there are some nice secrets to discover with a bit of climbing. I did have a real issue trying to tell which roofs were in background and which could be jumped on though, and fell to my death countless times. Dex is so close to being an essential cyberpunk experience, but a lot of its gameplay just isn’t very enjoyable. The world and characters are delightful, but it’s hard to get past the disappointing combat and hacking. If you’re looking for something to prepare you for 2077, and build your character to avoid combat as much as possible, Dex still has a compelling neon world to explore.

High refresh and great contrast for only $300 Cooler Master has long been well-known for its cooling components, PC cases and power supplies. This year, it's getting into displays with two new screens: the Cooler Master GM34-CW, the subject of this review, and the Cooler Master GM27-CF we reviewed earlier. The GM34-CW we're focused on today shows Cooler Master isn't shy in its attempts to make the best gaming monitor for your rig. For $300 at the time of writing, you get a 27-inch curved display with an impressive 165 Hz that's supposed to be able to climb to 200 Hz with overclocking. We had our qualms with overclocking to 200 Hz, but at this price has Cooler Master come up with the right formula for high-performance gaming on a budget? Cooler Master GM27-CF Specifications Panel Type / Backlight VA / W-LED, edge array Screen Size, Aspect Ratio & Curve 27 inches / 16:9; Curve radius: 1500mm Max Resolution & Refresh Rate 1920x1080 @ 165Hz, 200Hz w/overclock, FreeSync Premium: 48-200 Hz Native Color Depth & Gamut 8-bit / DCI-P3 Response Time (GTG) 3ms Brightness 300 nits Contrast 3,000:1 Speakers 2x 3w Video Inputs DisplayPort 1.2, HDMI 2.0, HDMI 1.4 Audio 3.5mm headphone output USB 3.0 None Power Consumption 19.3w, brightness @ 200 nits Panel Dimensions (WxHxD w/base) 24.3 x 16.8-20.9 x 9.4 inches (617 x 427-531 x 239mm) Panel Thickness 3.2 inches (80mm) Bezel Width Top/sides: 0.4 inch (10mm); Bottom: 0.8 inch (20mm) Weight 11.3 pounds (5.1kg) Warranty 3 years At under $300, the best HDR monitors are premium displays usually equipped with full-array local-dimming backlights. certainly checks a lot of boxes. Its VA panel claims high contrast, and Cooler Master also included extended color with a measured 85% of the DCI-P3 gamut. There's AMD FreeSync Premium to fight screen tearing, but for Nvidia graphics card users we also got G-Sync to run on the monitor, even though it's not Nvidia-certified (you can see how by reading our article on How to Run G-Sync on a FreeSync Monitor). A white LED backlight operates flicker-free and includes a low blue light mode to help combat eye fatigue. And a 1500R [CENSORED]ture helps wrap the action around the user’s peripheral vision just a little more than the same-sized flat screen. What’s missing? Some might decry the 1080p resolution. While there are higher-res screens aplenty, FHD does offer something higher pixel densities can’t: super-fast frame rates with budget video cards. Enthusiasts on a budget or those with older systems will find smooth operation from a monitor like the GM27-CF. The other omission is HDR. Butt as we've discussed before, the best HDR monitors are premium displays usually equipped with full-array local-dimming backlights. With an edge array backlight, the GM27-CF likely wouldn't have brought much to the HDR table anyway. Unpacking and Accessories The panel, upright and base must be assembled after unpacking. You’ll need a Phillips-head screwdriver to put everything together. Construction is a bit different than we’ve seen before. Rather than bolting the panel to the upright, you unsnap the fulcrum from the panel and attach it to the upright with two fasteners, then snap it back together. The base attaches with a captive bolt. If you’d rather use your own bracket or arm, two stamped steel pieces bolt to the panel, creating a 75mm VESA mount. The accessory bundle includes an external power supply and DisplayPort cable. The GM27-CF is simply styled with a thin 10mm bezel around the top and sides and a wider 20mm strip across the bottom. That bottom bezel holds a Cooler Master logo portrayed by a lavender outline only (no text). It’s a distinct shape that will be recognized immediately by enthusiasts. At the bottom right are five control buttons to toggle power and navigate the on-screen display (OSD). Meanwhile, the anti-glare layer is flush-mounted to create a frameless look when the screen is dark. The all-metal stand is finished in a dark silver. The upright is a simple tube shape and offers a 4.1-inch height adjustment. You also get 15 degrees of swivel in each direction and 15 degrees back tilt with 5 degrees forward. Movements are reasonably firm, and the panel stays in place without play or wobble. The provided brackets for the 75mm VESA mount are stout and should stand up to any aftermarket system you care to provide. The curve is a modest 1500R, which provides a subtle wrap effect without image distortion (more on that in the Gaming & Hands-on sectoin below). In back, there is a lighting effect coming from three LED strips covered by diffusers that create smoothly graded bars. It’s not bright enough to project on a wall but it will provide a subtle glow when gaming in the dark. The OSD has options for steady or flickering light. The latter is definitely a distraction. The input panel is sparse and contains two HDMI ports, one 1.4 and one 2.0. You also get a single DisplayPort 1.2 and a 3.5mm audio jack for headphones or an external system. Built-in speakers top out at three watts and deliver polite sound that is tinny at best. There are no USB ports included with the GM27-CF. OSD Features The OSD is divided into nine sub-menus arranged logically. Calibration controls are included, along with gaming features like aim points and FreeSync. There is no blur-reduction, and overclocking must be done in Windows Control Panel. Image controls include four picture modes, five gamma presets and three color temps, one of which is adjustable. The gamma options run quite darker than their labels suggest. 2.2 measures over 2.8, but a setting of 2.0 offers reasonably accurate luminance tracking. There is no sRGB gamut option, so you’ll be seeing extended color with all material. Additional image tweaks include sharpness control, three overdrive settings and dynamic contrast. The best balance between blur reduction and ghosting is found on the overdrive’s Fast (middle) setting. Dynamic contrast doesn’t offer any improvement in depth and clips some highlight and shadow detail. Sharpness should be left on its default setting, as higher numbers create resolution-robbing edge enhancement. To engage FreeSync or (non-certified) G-Sync, pull up the Other menu and turn FreeSync on, it’s off by default. You might have to reboot Windows as we did to get everything working. Speaking of operation, Cooler Master says you can overclock the GM27-CF's refresh rate to 200 Hz, give or take 5%. However, there is no overclock option in the OSD. A visit to Windows Control Panel revealed choices up to 200 Hz in the monitor dialog box. Cooler Master doesn’t guarantee 200 Hz with every sample, and indeed, ours did not run reliably at that speed. We'll get to that in the gaming section below. Cooler Master GM27-CF Calibration Settings The GM27-CF measured well in our grayscale tracking test out of the box but needed a gamma adjustment for best results. By default, gamma runs too dark, which muddies detail and makes the image a bit dull. We calibrated the white point with the user color temp and its RGB sliders, which are a little coarse but produced good results. Changing the gamma preset from 2.2 to 2.0 took the luminance tracking to a much better place, and color became more vibrant. We also dropped contrast from 50 to 47 to relieve a highlight detail clipping issue. With adjustments, the picture was very good with deep blacks and highlights that pop. A 27-inch FHD monitor offers a reasonable pixel density of 81 pixels per inch (ppi). We prefer around 109 ppi, but since this is gaming monitor we can live with 81 ppi if complemented by terrific performance. Cooler Master definitely offers that here. Gaming on this monitor was a pleasure. With super high frame rates, we saw smooth and tear-free motion rendering, excellent contrast and solid color saturation. We could max the detail levels in both Tomb Raider and Call of Duty: WWII with no hit to speed. Both titles ran at 140 frames per second (fps) or more. Tomb Raider often pegged the counter at 165 Hz. This meant there was no motion blur at all, and input lag was at its lowest level. Control response was firmly in the ESP category, where on-screen movement almost seemed to anticipate mouse and keyboard inputs. The GM27-CF isn’t far behind the very fastest gaming monitors we’ve tested. But as mentioned, we weren't able to hit a reliable 200 Hz overclock. The first attempt resulted in a scrambled screen. After a reboot, we gamed at 200 Hz for about an hour. There was a little bit of flickering, but it was tolerable. However, after you see one scrambled screen, you'll do what it takes to avoid seeing it again. We refrained from running at 200 Hz any longer because we feared having to reboot in safe mode to reset the refresh rate back to 165 Hz. This was an issue with our specific sample; your mileage may vary. But keep in mind that Cooler Master says the 200 Hz overclock may vary 5% in either direction. The extra-wide color gamut added a nice visual pop and, along with our calibration (see our recommended settings above, made for a dynamic picture with deep blacks and bright highlights. This monitor delivers an excellent image for its price point. We kept the overdrive at its middle setting and saw no artifacts or motion blur. Since the frame rate never dropped below 140 fps in any game, we saw no need for a backlight strobe feature. The GM27-CF has all the necessary features and technology to deliver a fantastic gaming experience without difficulty. Like every other 27-inch curved 16:9 screen we’ve tested, the curve did not detract from the experience nor did it call attention to itself, especially when using productivity apps. The curve boosted the feeling of immersion slightly when gaming, bu we’ve observed greater impact from 1500R curves in larger screens, like the 32-inch, 16:9 MSI Optix MAG321CURV. We would recommend the GM27-CF based on its performance, not the fact that it’s curved.

Allegations are vague and likely unfounded, claims Microsoft A group of Office 365 customers have filed a lawsuit against Microsoft over data allegedly shared with Facebook and other third parties without consent. Microsoft stands accused of breaching its pledge not to give out customer data to third parties and to share information with subcontractors only when absolutely necessary. The complainants in the case - Frank Russo, Koonan Litigation Consulting and Sumner Davenport & Associates - assert that Microsoft has provided hundreds of subcontractors with customer data without due cause, some of which have subsequently suffered data breaches. The court filing also claims Microsoft uses customer emails, documents, calendars, location data and more to inform the development of future products, in such a way that violates the US Wiretap Act, Stored Communications Act and consumer protection laws. Microsoft data sharing lawsuit The lawsuit focuses primarily on data supposedly shared with social media giant Facebook, unbeknownst to (and without the consent of) Office 365 customers. According to the complaint, the automatic nature of the data sharing arrangement means customers are rendered unable to protect their privacy. “Contrary to its representations, Microsoft has regularly shared - and continues to share - its business customers’ data with Facebook and other third parties. The data is shared even when neither the customers nor their contacts are Facebook users,” states the court filing. “Even if a customer discovers and disables this Facebook-sharing ‘feature’ after activating Office 365 or Exchange Online services, the damage has already been done.” The filing goes on to explain that, once delivered, the data cannot be deleted by anyone but Facebook and could also be utilized by any company Facebook chooses to collaborate with. Microsoft disputes the accusations, however, which it claims are vague and almost certainly unfounded. “We’re aware of the suit and will review it carefully. However, while the allegations themselves are not very specific, as we understand them we don’t believe they have merit,” said the firm. “We have an established history of both robust privacy protections and transparency, and we’re confident that our use of customer data is consistent with the instructions of our customers and our contractual commitments.”

Original release date : July 14, 2020 Developer : Veewo Games Platforms : Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Microsoft Windows Genres : Platformer, Roguelike Editors : Team17 , Yooreka Studio (China) Neon Abyss has perfected the Binding of Isaac formula, but its lack of creative energy and problems with similar locales drag it down considerably. It's fair to say that neon has become pretty played out as an indie aesthetic in recent years. That sentiment is perfectly exemplified by Neon Abyss, a new roguelike shooter from Veewo Games and Team17. What is otherwise a serviceable mixture of The Binding of Isaac 's structure and Hotline Miami's color palate refuses to take on any creative identity other than a generalized pop-culture vibe that ultimately drags a promising title down. Of all its inspirations, Neon Abyss cribs from The Binding of Isaac the most. It has the same dungeon structure, with small arenas, treasure rooms, and various passageways blocked off by stone walls and locked doors. Pickups include bombs, keys, familiars, and power-up items that stack to give characters crazy damage output by the end of a run. Completing a run and conquering the final boss doesn't mean the end credits, it just means unlocking a deeper, harder challenge the next time through. Many games have tried to copy this formula in the past, and Neon Abyss nails it more than most. It's only when gameplay strays away from what's been proven in the genre already that things start to fall apart. Instead of completing little challenges throughout a run to expand the item pool, players get a boss currency that they can spend on a standard upgrade tree. It's a style that promotes grinding over thoughtful exploration. The first few encounters with a new boss or a harder difficulty only serve as practice runs, and roguelikes are at their best when every run counts. This wouldn't be so much of a problem if Neon Abyss had more variety to its randomized dungeons. 90% of these rooms are the same nondescript stone chambers with the same bit of background graffiti and handful of enemies. More types of enemies do emerge as the playtime stacks up, but the levels never really change. In the middle of an intense run, it's easy to forget how many levels are left, which is a vital tool in other games for deciding whether it's worth taking on a combat arena or just challenging the boss early. Items face a similar variety issue, even if their function ends up working out in the end. Only a small percentage of power-ups offer anything interesting beyond an extra jump, an extra heart piece, or the chance to avoid damage. Most are stat boosts, including a lot of damage buffs. While they do create a satisfying ramp of power, there's never a sense that your gameplay truly changes because of the powers these items grant. Even on harder difficulties, there's no strategy to defeating most enemies in Neon Abyss. It's dependent on the ever-increasing damage output and getting used to dodging projectiles, and unfortunately, not much else. For a game like Neon Abyss, it all comes down to whether the carrot on the end of the stick is worth the hours of dedication, and the biggest strike against the game is its lack of identity. Even if someone wanted to dedicate themselves to Neon Abyss, there's no world to dig into and appreciate. Instead of an intriguing theme with items and weapons that back it up, everything feels generic at best and cringeworthy at worst. When the most unique pickups in a run are a Donald Trump minion that gobbles up coins and a Rick and Morty Szechuan sauce joke, Neon Abyss's vapid nature begins to overwhelm any joy brought on by the gameplay. Neon Abyss will satisfy the craving of anyone looking for a competently made roguelike - just as long as they're fine with immediately forgetting about it once they're done. While the shooting is fun in small doses, the dearth of variety in several areas and unremarkable meme aesthetics lend to the game's ultimately ethereal nature. In a genre with so many trailblazing entries, Neon Abyss fails at even making a mark. Most players would be better served starting a new save file on an old rougelike favorite than diving into this dungeon for the first time. System Requirement: MINIMUM: 64-bit operating system and processor required Operating system : Windows 7 64-bit Processor : Intel Core 2 Duo E6320 (2 * 1866) RAM: 2 GB of memory Graphics: GeForce 7600 GS (512 MB) DirectX: Version 11 Disk space : 1024 MB of available hard disk space RECOMMENDED: 64-bit operating system and processor required Operating system : Windows 10 64-bit Processor : Intel i3-2100 / AMD A8-5600k RAM: 4 GB of memory Graphics: GeForce GTX 630 / Radeon HD 6570 DirectX: Version 11 Disk space : 1024 MB of available hard disk space

What is this madness? If online retailer listing from across the pond are genuine, Intel has expanded its 10th Generation Comet Lake-S processors with four new CPUs. As first spotted by @momomo_us, the processors reportedly carry the "KA" suffix, which we haven't heard of until today. The first theory that comes to mind is that perhaps an employee made some typos and wrote KA instead of KF. However, the part numbers for the processors in question seem to dispel that theory. Additionally, the Comet Lake-S processors are now listed at three Lithuanian retailers, which makes the idea of a human error unlikely. The Lithuanian shops marks the four KA-series processors for the LGA1200 CPU socket, so we're certain that these are Comet Lake-S processors. They also share similar model names to the Core i9-10900K, Core i9-10850K, Core i7-10700K and Core i5-10600K that Intel has already announced. However, the standout detail here is that these processors are listed with the Core i9 moniker. This makes us doubt their authenticity, since it doesn't make sense for Intel to brand the Core i7-10700K and Core i5-10600K as Core i9 parts given their CPU core counts. For now, take the listings with a grain of salt. Intel 10th Generation Core i9 KA-Series Specifications Processor Part Number Base Clock (GHz) L3 Cache (MB) Pricing Core i9-10900KA BX8070110900KA 3.7 20 €525 Core i9-10850KA BX8070110850KA 3.6 20 €485 Core i9-10700KA BX8070110700KA 3.8 16 €408 Core i9-10600KA BX8070110600KA 4.1 12 €278 The Lithuanian store didn't provide much details on the KA-series. We don't know for sure, but the processors probably have the same amount of cores and threads as their K-series counterparts. That would mean that the Core i9-10900KA and Core i9-10850KA are probably at 10 cores and the Core i9-10700KA and Core i9-10600KA at eight and six cores, respectively. The KA series appears to have identical base clock speeds and amount of L3 cache. So what would the KA series bring to the table then? The K suffix means they're overclockable, but the A suffix remains a mystery. Unfortunately, the retailers didn't expose the processors' boost clock speeds, so we can't really reach a conclusion. Intel Core i9-10900KA Computer hardware is generally more expensive overseas, even after deducting the value-added tax (VAT). It doesn't make much sense to compare foreign pricing with the type of prices we have here in the U.S. However, we can compare prices at the same store and subsequently apply that percentage to our prices to get a general idea of how much each processor costs. For this occasion, we're using the pricing at PigiauNerasi as reference. As per PigiauNerasi's pricing, the KA-series processors are a little less expensive than the regular K-series variants. The Core i9-10900KA is roughly 1.9% cheaper than the Core i9-10900K. Astonishingly, the Core i9-10850KA costs the same as the Core i9-10850K. Lastly, the Core i9-10700KA and Core i9-10600KA sell for approximately 1% and 2.2% lower than the Core i7-10700K and Core i5-10600K, respectively. PigiauNerasi claims that the four KA-series processors will arrive at the retailer's warehouse by August 9. We've reached out to Intel for comment.

App usage data was allegedly used to develop competing services Google reportedly has an internal program that allows its employees to access detailed information about how Android users interact with third-party apps and services on their smartphones. As reported by The Information, the program, known as “Android Lockbox”, is part of Google Mobile Services and it keeps track of how frequently users launch non-Google apps, how long they use them for and how apps are used on a per-country basis. The news outlet's report also identified a “Magic Eye” team within the search giant that is in charge of tracking first-party app usage and comparing this with Lockbox data in order to brief executives at the company on how third-party services compare to its own internal ones. Google also allegedly used information from Lockbox to help plan the launch of its new TikTok competitor, Shorts. Getting access to Android Lockbox information requires the company's employees to request permission to do so and according to The Information's report, these requests are not always granted. Android Lockbox Android Lockbox begins tracking how users interact with their smartphones once they opt in during the Android setup process. In a support document, Google explains the type of data it collects when usage and diagnostics is turned on, saying: “If you turn on usage and diagnostics, your device sends info to Google about what’s working and not working. For example, your device can send info like: battery level, how often you use your apps and quality and length of your network connections (like mobile, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth).” Google has since responded to The Information's report and the company admitted that it does have access to usage data from competing apps. However, it said that the program is public and that other developers also have access to similar data. The data gathered is anonymous and is not personally identifiable, according to the report. For those concerned about sharing their smartphone and app usage with Google, you can opt out by heading to the settings menu on your Android device, going to the Google section, tapping on the three dots at the top right of the screen and turning Usage & diagnostics off.

My vote goes to DH2. Its more in the Dance genre than DH1, plus it really makes you want to dance ?

I'll vote DH2. The song is insane, real rap, GOOBA is one of my favourite songs.

For me DH1 is more original, I discovered it and enjoyed it so much. The rythm and the lyrics are perfect. DH1 for me ?

Original release date : September 19, 2019 Developer : Triband Mode : Solo Genre : Sports video game Platforms : Nintendo Switch, iOS, Microsoft Windows, Linux, Mac OS Nominations : The Game Award for Best Mobile Game , BAFTA Games Award for EE Mobile Game of the Year The 2019 anti-golf golf game is better than ever on Switch. What the Golf, 2019's hilarious anti-golf golf game, is at its best on Switch. Everything that was good in the Apple Arcade and PC versions, which we reviewed last year, remains good here, but the additions and improvements that the Switch version brings make it the definitive What the Golf experience. The game arrives on Nintendo's hybrid console with a new two-player "Party Mode" that wasn't included in the PC or Apple Arcade releases. This mode, which sees you and another player each picking up a Joy-Con and facing off in a series of competitive levels, is an absolute hoot. Both players are made to compete across 11 random levels, each based on levels from the campaign, to see who can get to the hole first. There's a great diversity across Party Mode's levels, with some levels feeling more like puzzles, some purely based on skill, and others that could only work in multiplayer, like when you're both controlling separate items that are tethered to each other or trying to goad the other into tipping over a tower of boxes that the pin is sitting atop. There are lots of levels here, and I still saw new ones pop up after playing for several hours. In keeping with What the Golf's style, very few of Party Mode's levels really feel like golf, which is part of the fun. After you've played through 11 stages, you and your opponent compete in one final competitive arena-based game, and the number of lives each of you has depends on how well you did in previous rounds. There are only three types of final competition, but they're all fun, particularly the combat-based game where you fling around in an office chair, trying to pick up and fire explosive beach balls at your opponent. Your victory depends on how you perform in this final game, and how many lives you have--if you won seven of the previous rounds, you can take up to six hits in the final competition, whereas your opponent can only survive three. A full round of games in Party Mode rarely takes more than 10 minutes, and you only ever need the analog stick and the A button. These are less mini-games, more micro-games, often lasting just a few wild, hilarious seconds. As an extension of What the Golf's brand of irreverence and comedy, Party Mode is wonderful. It's also hugely accessible--I jumped in with my partner, who is not a big gamer and never played the campaign, and it didn't take long for her to start collecting wins. Granted, it's not the most balanced experience (one player will start some games with a slight advantage), and it would be nice to be able to toggle certain levels on or off--over time we've learned the tricks to overcome the levels that initially caused frustration. One level also seems to award the win to the wrong player consistently, but it's unclear whether that's an error or the game trolling players as it tends to do. Yet every time we've sat down for a quick session it has turned into multiple rounds, with lots of swearing, shouting, and laughing. It's rare for competitive party games to be built specifically as two-player experiences, and What the Golf is great for forming an intense rivalry with another person. The single-player campaign is essentially unchanged from previous versions, at least in terms of levels and layouts, but playing on Switch gives you some extra control options and a few bells and whistles. Players now have the option to use either a controller or the touchscreen, and if you're playing in handheld mode you can switch seamlessly at any time. You can play through the full game docked, but a few levels that use first-person motion controls will prompt you with a recommendation that you switch to handheld for the best experience--these are also the only levels that require you to have the Joy-Cons connected. I found that I preferred a docked experience for party mode and undocked for the campaign. While initially I wanted to only use the touchscreen controls, touching the screen and swiping to determine the direction and power of my shot, the more I played, the more often I found myself switching to traditional controls if they suited a level. It's not that the touch controls don't work well--they're responsive and feel natural--but it's nice to have options. You can change at any time without needing to enter a menu or toggle anything--touch the stick or the screen and the game will immediately switch control schemes. The game supports every configuration of controller the Switch supports, and it's clear that a lot of care has gone into making this feel like a game that was made with Nintendo's platform in mind. HD Rumble adds an extra layer to the experience, too--while it's used fairly sparingly, the little rumble that kicks in whenever you hit the pin is just right and makes completing a challenge all the more satisfying. As an extension of What the Golf's brand of irreverence and comedy, Party Mode is wonderful. All of these extra touches have made replaying the campaign a pleasure, and I found myself more inclined to dig into the extra optional challenges on each hole, switching between touch and stick control methods to see which ones best suited each. There are occasional frame rate stutters and some slight visual glitches in this version, but nothing that impacts the experience in a meaningful way. What the Golf was already excellent on PC and mobile, but the Switch version is the definitive one, especially if you have another player handy. It's still wildly funny, weird, and lots of fun, and if it was just the campaign again, it would still be the best version of the game thanks to the ability to switch between touch and stick controls--but the addition of Party Mode really elevates the whole package. In my original review I said, "Like all great jokes, you'll want to share it," and now that's easier than ever.

Alder Lake-S is coming, but not soon Intel's announcement today that its 7nm process will be delayed until late 2022 or early 2023 sent shockwaves through the industry The company also revealed that its first 10nm CPUs for the desktop won't come to market until the second half of 2021. AMD's continued push with its 7nm Ryzen processors has caught Intel flat footed as it continues to lose market share in the desktop PC market, so the relatively long wait for 10nm processors could prove to be a significant disadvantage for Intel. Intel's Alder Lake-S chips are known to come with a hybrid architecture, meaning they will come with both a collection of larger and smaller cores much like ARM's big.LITTLE architecture. That means Alder Lake-S won't feature a traditional chip architecture, and even though Intel has paved the path with its Lakefield 3D processors, that approach presents challenges for both manufacturing and software support. It's unclear if Intel will use 3D packaging for the new chips, which could complicate the fabrication process. The new chips will land in a new LGA1700 socket, and are also expected to use the new DDR5 specification. According to Intel's announcement today, we won't see the new chips until the second half of 2021. Intel's upcoming 14nm Rocket Lake processors will serve as the stopgap, but the company hasn't revealed when those chips will come to market.

Not sure what crypto-jacking is, or a botnet? Find out here Confused by some of the most-used terms used in the antivirus world? There are certainly some odd sounding abbreviations or bits of jargon which can prompt a bout of head-scratching. In this article, we’re going to highlight some of the most common offenders, giving you clear and concise definitions of these terms. On with the jargon busting… Antivirus OK, so you probably don't need this one explaining. Consider it an easy start to this jargon buster! It's software that you install on to your computer or phone to prevent cyber attacks from stealing your data or infecting your hardware. It can vary from very basic free virus prevention software and malware detection, to all-singing all-dancing internet security suites that pack every defence you can imagine but cost a little bit more. Botnet An army of hacked computers (each device being known as a ‘bot’) which can be controlled to act in unison for malicious ends, such as spamming other PCs or engaging in a DDoS attack (as defined below). Crypto-jacking This is the name for the process of malware hijacking your PC and using its system resources to engage in mining cryptocurrencies (like Bitcoin) for the eventual profit of the author. This kind of attack can slow down your PC considerably. DDoS Stands for Distributed Denial of Service, and refers to the practice of bombarding a target network using multiple devices (sometimes via a large botnet), flooding the target so it’s overwhelmed. In this way, malicious actors can take down websites or services so that you won’t be able to use them while the DDoS attack persists - and where DDoS protection becomes so useful. False positive When an antivirus app flags up something as malicious, and it turns out that the file (or web page, or whatever) in question is actually legitimate, and not dangerous at all, this event is referred to as a false positive, or in other words a false detection. Heuristics The process of detecting malware simply based on its behavior (as opposed to the antivirus engine recognizing a threat based on existing definitions). By looking for software or processes behaving suspiciously, in a similar way to already known malware, an antivirus can detect and negate a threat which it hasn’t seen before (such as a zero-day – see the separate definition below). Keylogger Although these can be legitimate (albeit niche) programs, in the antivirus world, they are malware which stealthily logs your keypresses, or in other words, spies on you and records everything you type, in an effort to discover sensitive details like your passwords. Malware A contraction of ‘malicious’ and ‘software’, malware refers to any kind of software which is specifically designed to do bad things to your device or otherwise compromise your security or data. Phishing Phishing is the act of baiting a user to click on a link or attachment in a message (usually an email) to compromise them in some way, often with a malware infection. The message in question usually looks like it comes from a reputable authority or company, to try and trick the user into being more likely to believe it because the content seems genuine. Pwned Slang for ‘owned’ (with its alleged origins in a mis-typing), meaning that you’ve fallen victim to an exploit or been compromised in some way. In other words, you have been ‘pwned’, and it’s such a common term online these days that a famous hacking contest, Pwn2Own, is built around ‘pwning’ systems and software. Ransomware This is malware which stealthily encrypts your files, effectively locking them away from you, and demands a payment for the digital key to unlock them. Even if you pay the ransom – usually in Bitcoin online – there’s no guarantee that the perpetrator will actually decrypt your data, so better to play things safe with antivirus software that includes ransomware protection. Trojan Named after the Trojan horse, this simply refers to the practice of creating a piece of software which looks like a legitimate app, but really it’s a carrier for malware. When you run the application, you’ll be infected. Virus Antivirus apps themselves are named because they defend against viruses, which is one type of malware – but not the only type (and of course antivirus applications these days protect you from a broad range of malware). A virus is placed into a file by its author, and when that file is run, it infects the system (potentially doing all manner of nasty things). It usually operates stealthily, in the background, and is designed to spread to other files on your system – the hope of the author being that if those files are subsequently transferred to another user, the virus will compromise them too. And it’ll continue to spread, just like a real-world virus. VPN An abbreviation for 'virtual private network', VPNs consist of secure, encrypted tunnels via which all the data you receive and send online travel. The providers use their own servers based in different countries, meaning they can also serve a second function as a way to 'geo-spoof' your IP address. They often come included in more substantial internet security suites. White hat hacker An ethical hacker who attempts to compromise systems and find exploits with the intention of informing developers of any security flaws, allowing them to be fixed before malicious hackers can leverage them to nefarious ends. White hat hackers can sometimes be handsomely rewarded with bounties for discovering vulnerabilities that could otherwise have wreaked havoc on a company’s reputation. Worm A worm spreads itself in the same way a virus does (as we explain in the definition above), but it’s even more of a worry as it automatically propagates. In other words, the user doesn’t need to click on or run a file to be infected. Wannacry is a famous example of a supremely dangerous worm in action. Zero-day A zero-day (or 0-day) refers to a vulnerability which has freshly arrived on the scene. It’s dangerous because its existence has only just been uncovered, and therefore it hasn’t been patched against. The rush is then on to defend against the threat as quickly as possible, before attackers concoct exploits for the zero-day (which an antivirus could struggle to detect, because the threat is new and not seen before – although a good antivirus will hopefully detect it simply based on its suspicious behavior).

A big pro. Respectful guy, active on ts3 and on forum.

Original release date : June 2, 2020 Publisher : Konami Digital Entertainment Developer : Ukuza, Inc. Platforms : PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, Microsoft Windows, Linux, Mac OS Skelattack is a side-scrolling platformer with a lot of heart, but it ends too quickly and the obstacles it places in front of you are hampered because of it. Lacking meat on its bones, Skelattack has disjointed pieces and parts that add up to create an awkward, though heartwarming, side-scrolling platformer. You can see snippets of a precise platformer in Skelattack, but they are too sporadic and underutilized to really make you sweat. In a game centered on a human invasion of the afterlife, there sure aren't very many enemies, and most of them remain in place or move like molasses, emulating the dead far more than the warm-blooded humans they're supposed to be. Skelattack's identity crisis is further fueled by its far too brief length, which prevents any of its solid ideas from coming into their own. Starring a chipper skeleton named Skully and his lovable bat-pal Imber, Skelattack tells the story of a peculiarly joyous world of the dead, dubbed Aftervale, that's suddenly invaded by the wretched humans who seek immortality. Developed by Ukuza, Skelattack is the debut title in Konami's new push to publish games made by Western studios. And while your mind likely jumps to Castlevania when you think Konami, Skelattack doesn't evoke the labyrinthine design of the publisher's influential franchise. Instead, what you get is a linear world with few instances where you're able to go off the beaten path to uncover hidden chests with upgrades or currency. The world is separated into a handful of different areas, each with its own obstacles to pass and enemies to either avoid or eliminate. All of them wind up feeling rather similar in practice, since Skelattack doesn't really build on its mechanics over time. Skully can double-jump, an ability that is used in almost every room. Whether wall-jumping, vaulting through a maze of precarious spikes, or avoiding projectiles, Skelattack's best segments ask you to be dialed in. In its strongest spots, you have to string together jumps while navigating minefields of dangerous objects. Carefully timing your jumps and double jumps to land safely on solid ground can be thrilling, especially when you're forced to consider not only the current jump, but your next move, too. These great moments are all about committing to a plan and executing it to perfection. Unfortunately, the briefness of these tricky maneuvers and the absence of real stakes suffocates an adventure that shows glimpses of greatness and genuinely clever platforming sequences in places. Even though Skelattack has tight controls and fluid animations, both the platforming and combat suffer as a result of the layout of many areas. Skelattack fails to capitalize on its pulse-racing sections by placing too much cushion between them. Or, in some cases, sequences are broken up by an excessive number of checkpoints, which are found in practically every room and in greater numbers in more taxing rooms. When the threat of instant death disappears, you're left going through the motions in a world that is now strangely unthreatening. Occasionally, you take control of Imber to navigate through tight spaces, fluttering through obstacles. Though it's a nice change of pace, these instances are also fleeting. Death also causes you to lose a portion of the gems you've accrued. They float at the spot of your death, and you can retrieve them in full as long as you don't die on the way back. Otherwise, you keep losing more and more with each death. This is complicated by the fact that if you're impaled by spikes, retrieving lost gems is annoyingly challenging, because they float right above the spikes. This may sound like a big deal, but gems are trivial and the purchases you make with your fortune don't matter much when death isn't much of a punishment to begin with. Over the course of your journey to stop the humans, you can buy upgrades for your health and various abilities: heal, a projectile attack, a third jump, and a secret ability that comes into play far too late to make an impactful difference. All of your abilities use magic, but the only truly useful one is heal, which winds up negating the difficulty of what would otherwise be tough boss fights. Once you purchase an upgrade or two for heal, you can brute force every combat encounter--namely bosses--without having to worry about dying. Skelattack has fluid, though rudimentary combat. You simply need to slash your sword and hop away to avoid attacks. And your only real opportunity to make use of the combat is in boss fights. However, because you can take a lot of damage and heal yourself instantly, these well-designed bosses--a flying archer, a powerful mage, a tag team duo of a warrior and lute player, and more--wind up being far less formidable than they initially appear. It's disappointing considering that boss fights actually make pretty good use of the platforming mechanics, often taking place in dynamic rooms where you have to use the environment--platforms, moving conveyor belts, and spring-loaded mushrooms--to get hits in. Sadly, since you quickly become overpowered to physical threats, these fights don't have the opportunity to shine. Outside of boss fights, it's surprising how few enemies are positioned across the map. Sword-wielding knights make up the bulk of the enemies, but they are so slow and unimposing that they might as well not be there. Other enemies, for the most part, act more as additional environmental fixtures rather than true threats, as they are seemingly incapable of moving from their positions. Magic-wielding enemies lob fireballs, while stoic humans playing lutes hurl sound waves that can push you off course while jumping around. If more prevalent in numbers and dynamic, these enemies would add a meaningful layer to Skelattack; instead, their minimal presence amplifies the uneven reality of this world, and combat gets pushed into the back of your mind until the next boss showdown. Despite its balance and progression woes, Skelattack still manages to sneak in some charm in spots. Lighthearted dialogue between Skully and Imber and the other denizens of Aftervale is often humorous and flies in the face of what'd you expect from skeletons, rat kings, imposing rock beings, and sentient flames. There's a kindness in Skelattack that is cozy and infectious. Its welcoming personality combined with colorful visuals and melodic soundtrack make even damp sewers, a fiery cavern, and a literal dungeon seem rather pleasant. It's just a shame that the moment-to-moment gameplay doesn't live up to the endearing atmosphere. Skelattack moves quickly toward its conclusion, with the adventure to stave off the invasion winding down in about four hours. There's nothing wrong with short games that can be played in an afternoon or two, but what's here never becomes a fully realized experience. The length wouldn't be a problem if Skelattack delivered a fully realized experience, but it fails to do so. Skelattack has flashes of excitement and delight, and there's no denying that it feels good in motion, but lackluster level design and inconsequential combat let its sound platforming down. Unlike the inhabitants of Aftervale, Skelattack lacks soul. Minimum System Requirements CPU: Intel Core i3 CPU SPEED: Info RAM: 4 GB OS: Windows 8.1+ VIDEO CARD: Intel HD Graphics or equivalent PIXEL SHADER: 3.0 VERTEX SHADER: 3.0 SOUND CARD: Yes FREE DISK SPACE: 200 MB Recommended system requirements Memory:4 GB Graphics Card:NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560 Skelattack CPU:Intel Core i5-650 File Size:1 GB OS:Windows 10

From bad to worse Intel announced today in its Q2 2020 earnings release that it has now delayed the rollout of its 7nm CPUs by six months relative to its previously-planned release date. Intel's press release also says that yields for its 7nm process are now twelve months behind the company's internal targets, meaning the company isn't currently capable of producing its 7nm process in an economically viable way. The company now says its 7nm process will not debut on the market until late 2022 or early 2023. Here's the snippet from Intel's press release: "The company's 7nm-based CPU product timing is shifting approximately six months relative to prior expectations. The primary driver is the yield of Intel's 7nm process, which based on recent data, is now trending approximately twelve months behind the company's internal target." On the earnings call, Intel CEO Bob Swan said the company had identified a "defect mode" in its 7nm process and has invested in "contingency plans," which Swan later defined as using third-party foundries. The company will also use external third-party foundries as a contingency plan for its forthcoming Ponte Vecchio GPUs. Intel also says that its first 10nm desktop CPUs, Alder Lake, will arrive in the second half of 2021. It's unclear how Intel will reconcile a six month delay to its 7nm processors with a year delay to its internal 7nm yield projections, but it is possible the company had a built-in buffer in its roadmap. The delay reflects yet another setback as Intel still struggles to overcome the multi-year yield issues it has encountered with its 10nm process. Those delays have allowed its competitors, like AMD, to seize an opportunity to wrest the process node leadership position from Intel for the first time in the company's history. That's triggered a price war in the market as Intel fights a true x86 competitor with a better node, not to mention the Amazon's new Graviton 2 ARM chips based on TSMC's 7nm node. The announcement also exacerbates the recent news that rock star chip architect Jim Keller, who was part of a team effort to revitalize the company's roadmaps, has left the company. Intel CFO George Davis has previously indicated that the company's process tech would lag its its competitors until 2021 until 7nm arrived in 2021, and that the company would regain the lead with its 5nm process at an undefined time: "So we bring a lot of capability to the table for our customers, in addition to the CPU, and we feel like we're starting to see the acceleration on the process side that we have been talking about to get back to parity in the 7nm generation and regain leadership in the 5nm generation." "As we said back at our analyst day in May of 19: Look, this isn't just going to be the best node that Intel has ever had. It's going to be less productive than 14nm, less productive than 22nm, but we're excited about the improvements that we're seeing and we expect to start the 7nm period with a much better profile of performance over that starting at the end of 2021." That plan to regain a competitive footing has now obviously shifted due to the 7nm delay. Intel had planned to speed the delivery of its 7nm node to offset the underperforming 10nm, which it said would not perform as well as other nodes. At the time, Davis noted that the company was trying to be clear with investors about the impacts of 10nm on the company's gross margins: "...but the fact is that I wanted to be clear what was happening during the 10nm generation. The fact is, it isn't going to be as strong a node as people would expect from 14nm or what they'll see in 7nm." "Also, we were at a time when in order to regain process leadership we had to accelerate the overlap between 10nm, 7nm, and then 7nm and 5nm, so the cost that you're absorbing, starting in particular in 2021, you’ve got this intersection of the performance of 10nm, the investment in 7nm, and were also well into starting the investment in 5nm: All of those elements just combine to impact gross margin." This news was just released in Intel's financial earnings with no forewarning and the company says it will announce more details during its earnings call, so we're digging deeper. The company has its earnings briefing shortly and we've reached out for further context. We'll update this post as we learn more.

What is the Kindle Unlimited price? The Amazon Kindle Unlimited price includes unrestricted access to a whole library of ebooks and more, which means you're covered for all your reading needs whatever you feel like getting stuck into. It's worth remembering that you can only store up to ten titles on your device at once, however, though it's easy to swap these titles out so you'll never get stuck paying for something you don't ultimately enjoy. One of the latest subscription services to hit the Amazon suite, Kindle Unlimited not only offers free books for your cash, but you can also grab free magazines and even free Audible audiobooks with select titles. The Amazon Kindle Unlimited price is $9.99 / £7.99 / AU$ 13.99 a month, with unlimited access to over one million books, two thousand audiobooks, and a wide selection of magazine subscriptions. That's a fantastic price considering an Audible subscription will set you back far more per month, and can offer fewer audiobooks for your money. It's worth noting that this subscription operates on a 'borrowing' service, so you'll only be able to hold 10 titles in your library at a time, and these will not be available once the membership ends. The Kindle Unlimited price remains the same whether you're a Prime member or not, and is not automatically included in your Prime subscription. Plus, you can always find a free trial if you want to test out the service before you put any cash on the table. Is the Amazon Kindle Unlimited price worth it? Rather than spending money on individual ebooks, magazine subscriptions, and audiobooks, it is far more cost effective to wrap all those products up under the Amazon Kindle Unlimited price. With a massive range of titles on offer, you'll never be stuck for choice, but perhaps the feature that lends the most value to this subscription is those Audible audiobooks. If you want flexibility in how you consume your books, you can easily jump between reading the content on your screen and listening to an Audible narration. Considering an Audible subscription itself will set you back $14.95 / £7.99 / AU$16.45 for fewer audiobooks per month, Kindle Unlimited really is a no-brainer. The only hiccup comes from the fact that you are limited to the 2,000 Kindle Unlimited titles with this feature available. However, if you're after the option of an audiobook narration rather than simply seeking out audiobooks themselves, this is a fantastic offer. If you want to check if the price will be worth it for your own reading habits, you can always grab a Kindle Unlimited free trial to scope out the experience before you buy. Is the Amazon Kindle Unlimited price included with a Prime subscription? Amazon Kindle Unlimited isn't included with a Prime subscription as standard, and unfortunately there are no price reductions available for Prime members. Prime Reading is the Prime-member equivalent automatically included with your subscription, but offers a reduced range. Which ebooks are included in Kindle Unlimited? Kindle Unlimited does not provide full free access to the entire Kindle library. Instead, a selection of more than a million titles are included in the Kindle Unlimited offering. You can easily browse the books and magazine subscriptions that are covered from the Kindle app to get a sense of what's on offer here, however there's a fantastic range of genres to choose from, plenty with their own Audible narrations as well. Do I need a Kindle ereader to use Kindle Unlimited? You don't need a Kindle ereader to take advantage of the free books on offer with Kindle Unlimited. In fact, you can use Kindle Unlimited on a massive range of iOS, Android, Mac and PC devices thanks to the Kindle App. Plus, you can sync your progress across all your devices to make sure you never lose your place.

Original release date : December 7, 2018 Developer : Monkeycraft Platforms : Nintendo Switch, Microsoft Windows Publishers : Bandai Namco Entertainment , Namco Bandai Games America Inc. Somewhere, over the royal rainbow. I’d like to share a truth with you. And that truth is that even Time – that Great Devourer of early polygonal graphics, that beast which hath smote and sullied many a PSone and PS2 icon, that ravager of (gaming) worlds – is powerless against the might of Katamari Damacy. This joyous game’s deliberately low-poly art style has proven to be not just a great artistic choice in its era, but the key to ensuring it ages with grace. About the only thing the PS2 version needed was a bump in resolution to really ensure its blocky aesthetic works on a modern screen, and with Reroll, that’s exactly what we have – and it’s glorious. Of course, the real genius of Katamari Damacy is its central, simple, Blob-like idea: roll up things that are smaller than you (as represented by your katamari ball) in order to absorb them and grow, which then allows you to roll up larger things. It’s a through-line that takes you from rolling up thumbtacks and takoyaki all the way up to people and trees, and then onto an apocalyptic scale where you’re consuming ocean liners, cities, and the clouds themselves. As a big-picture concept it’s inspired, but it also translates to compulsive gameplay that challenges you to evaluate how to harvest items in your surroundings based on your current size, and plan out how to keep moving and growing to make the most of the time available. Katamari’s levels are nothing more than spaces filled with stuff – everyday stuff at that – but it taps into the innate motivation to collect things and makes it the prime driving force, teasing you with the idea that – if you’re efficient enough – you can collect the entire world. Most levels don’t have the full shift in scale, but every change in scale is somewhat magical. The same environment is re-invented over and over again within a single mission, allowing you to see it from a new vantage point and to double back and subsume things that were obstacles only a few short minutes ago. The same environment is re-invented over and over again within a single mission... It’s conceptually elegant, and paired with controls that are deliberately a little unwieldy to give your ever-growing katamari a feeling of weight; it’s something your tiny character has to wrangle to keep under control. The battle to find precision with a massive, knobbly, protuberance-laden ball of things is part of the charm, even if it can be frustrating to get wedged somewhere and slough off bits before you manage to extricate yourself, or to be blindsided by larger creatures or vehicles. There’s also the minor issue of the sometimes-arbitrary-seeming rules about what is or isn’t small enough to roll up at your current size. Katamari Damacy is not a hard game, however, so you’re unlikely to fail a level because of a momentary hiccup or two. For the main levels, it’s mostly just a question of how much bigger than the initial target you can get your katamari before the time limit hits. These levels start out at five minutes and gradually get longer and encompass bigger changes in scale, culminating in an epic, delightfully surreal 25-minute finale. Katamari Damacy Reroll Madness It’s a testament to the strength of the vision that Katamari Damacy can take everyday settings and a huge catalogue of - mostly - real world objects and animals, and tease out something so bizarre and wonderfully absurd. Of course, it doesn’t hurt that the soundtrack is infectious, wide-ranging, and well-produced, nor that the story is anchored by one of the most memorably offbeat characters ever given life in a video game. Yes, I’m talking about the King of All Cosmos – the self-obsessed space deity and absent father to the player character’s Prince. He sets the story in motion by shattering all the stars in the night sky while on a bender, then demands that you help create new celestial bodies by rolling stuff up with your katamari. It’s all the story Katamari Damacy needs, and a handy jumping-off point for many of the side-missions. These riff on the celestial theme by demanding that the Prince replace the constellations of the zodiac. Need to make a new Pisces? Roll up as many fish as you can. Gemini? Roll up twins! These levels feel particularly quirky thanks to the narrower focus. You’ll discover crowns growing in the radish patch in Make Corona Borealis, for instance, while in Make Virgo you’ll roll up so many “maidens” that your katamari ball will be a writhing mass of flailing appendages – like a playful, pop art version of Inside’s final moments. The story is anchored by one of the most memorably offbeat characters ever given life in a video game. Unlike the main missions, these have no fail state but offer a good challenge for those who want to actually find all the requisite objects in each. There are a handful of other twists, too, such as Make Taurus, which simply asks you to roll up the largest cow you can. Here, the trick is to grow large enough to roll up a hefty heifer without accidentally rolling up something cow-related – like a carton of milk – that will instantly end the level. This level may have a time limit of 10 minutes, but it can be over in 10 seconds before you learn what to avoid. It’s an interesting but somewhat unsuccessful experiment, as the larger you get the more likely it is you’ll accidentally run over something tiny that counts as a cow by accident and lose all your hard-earned progress. It can be frustrating and punitive in a way other levels aren’t, in other words. More successful is Make the North Star, in which you’re not told how big your katamari is and instead must nominate an end point to the level when you think you’re close to 10 metres in size. As a long-term fan, it’s cool revisiting all these levels again, not to mention rolling up absolutely everything in the time limit-free Eternal stages. I should mention, however, that Reroll doesn’t feel great with the Switch’s Joy-Con thumbsticks, and I wouldn’t recommend the newly implemented motion controls either. I spent most of my time on Switch using a Pro Controller and on PC using a DualShock 4. Your mileage may vary – I think the Switch sticks are uncomfortable and lack precision in general, and also refused to play Breath of the Wild on the road for the same reason. Verdict It only took me a couple of good sessions to play through everything Katamari Damacy Reroll had to offer, but the vast majority of those six or seven hours was spent with an enormous grin on my face, my head nodding along to the incredibly catchy, eclectic score. Katamari Damacy was a breath of fresh air on first release and it still is today, almost 15 years later. Minimum Requirements CPU: Intel Core i3-2125 or equivalent CPU SPEED: Info RAM: 4 GB OS: Windows 7/8/10 (64-bit OS required) VIDEO CARD: GeForce GTX 750, or equivalent PIXEL SHADER: 5.0 VERTEX SHADER: 5.0 SOUND CARD: DirectX compatible soundcard or onboard chipset FREE DISK SPACE: 4 GB DEDICATED VIDEO RAM: 2048 MB Recommended Requirements CPU: Intel Core i5-2300 or equivalent CPU SPEED: Info RAM: 6 GB OS: Windows 10 64-bit VIDEO CARD: GeForce GTX 660 equivalent or higher PIXEL SHADER: 5.0 VERTEX SHADER: 5.0 SOUND CARD: DirectX compatible soundcard or onboard chipset FREE DISK SPACE: 6 GB DEDICATED VIDEO RAM: 2048 MB

The little guy that packs a punch. Inspire Studio SCF72060S Zotac has announced today a new compact 5.85-liter PC that the brand bills as an excellent tool for content creators. The Inspire Studio SCF72060S arrives in an all-white body that measures 225 x 203 x 128mm (8.86 x 7.99 x 5.04 inches). Zotac doesn't specify the materials used in the mini-PC's construction, but the images show what appears to be a plastic exterior. You'll find an Intel Core i7-9700 octa-core processor inside the Inspire Studio SCF72060S. The processor enjoys the company of a Nvidia GeForce RTX 2060 Super graphics card and 32GB of DDR4-2666 memory. Only one SO-DIMM DDR4 memory slot is occupied so there's room for another 32GB module to expand the system's total memory up to 64GB. Zotac fits the Inspire Studio SCF72060S with a 512GB M.2 NVMe SSD for primary storage and a 2TB 2.5-inch hard drive for secondary storage. Microsoft Windows 10 Pro (64-bit) is included. The manufacturer also mentions a M.2 slot for Intel Optane drives up to 80mm. Additionally, the mini-PC also has an integrated card reader that's compatible with SD, SDHC and SDXC cards. Inspire Studio SCF72060S The Inspire Studio SCF72060S is tailored towards content creators so it comes equipped with sufficient connectivity options. There are six USB 3.1 ports in total. One Type-A and one Type-C port are each located up front and the remaining four are positioned in the back of the mini-PC. The mini-PC supplies two 3.5 mm audio jacks, one for your headphones and the other for your microphone. The system can connect to the Internet via an old-school cable or wireless connection. The Inspire Studio SCF72060S has two Gigabit Ethernet ports. Zotac doesn't go into details, but one of the port is based on a Killer controller so the other port is likely leveraging an Intel controller. If you want to free yourself from cables, the Inspire Studio SCF72060S sports a Killer Wi-Fi 6 AX1650 module that offers Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5 features. If multitasking is your gig, the Inspire Studio SCF72060S doesn't disappoint either. The GeForce RTX 2060 Super lets you run up to four displays simultaneously. There are three DisplayPort 1.4 outputs and one HDMI 2.0b port at your disposal. The first does 3840 x 2160 at 60 Hz, while the latter supports 4096 x 2160 at 60 Hz. Zotac didn't provide any details on when the Inspire Studio SCF72060S will be available or how much it will cost

Office 365 will no longer support these legacy TLS protocols Microsoft has revealed that it will enforce the deprecation of the legacy Transport Layer Security (TLS) web protocols TLS 1.0 and 1.1 in Office 365 on October 15 of this year. Although the software giant's TLS 1.0 implementation does not have any known security vulnerabilities, the company has decided to discontinue support for the aging protocol due to the potential for future protocol downgrade attacks and other possible TLS vulnerabilities. Originally Microsoft and other browser vendors had planned to disable TLS 1.0 and 1.1 earlier this year. However, these plans were put on hold once the pandemic began. In a recently updated document though, Microsoft announced the new enforcement date, saying: “We temporarily halted deprecation enforcement of TLS 1.0 and 1.1 for commercial customers due to covid-19, but as supply chains have adjusted and certain countries open back up, we are resetting the TLS enforcement to start Oct 15, 2020.” TLS 1.0 and 1.1 The plan to retire TLS 1.0 and 1.1 in the beginning of 2020 was first announced back in 2018. To prepare for this, Microsoft and other browser makers urged customers to adopt TLS 1.2 instead. Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Microsoft Edge and Apple Safari were even planning to show error messages from March or April on sites that still used TLS 1.0 and 1.1. In order to ensure that people could still access government sites during lockdowns, Mozilla temporarily re-enabled support for TLS 1.0 and 1.1 in March. Microsoft and Google then decided to defer disabling the aging TLS protocols until the release of Microsoft Edge 84 and Chrome 84. The updated versions of both browsers have now been released which is why Microsoft now believes it is time to enforce the deprecation of these legacy TLS protocols in Office 365. The software giant expects the effect of the change to be “minimal” since the deprecation of TLS 1.0 and 1.1 has been known about since 2017.

Nickname : @.-AdiiLo-. Tag your opponent : @#REDSTAR ♪ ♫ Music genre : Hip Hop Number of votes : 7 Tag one leader to post your songs LIST : @#Em i[N]O'

I really love both songs, they are both insane. But I prefer the DH2 for the crazy drops! DH2 ?

Original release date : 2019 Designer : Kevin Chen Developer : ROUTE 59 Genre : Visual novel Engine : Unity Platforms : Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Microsoft Windows, Mac OS Necrobarista may not make the player a part of its story, but this visual novel's narrative still hits pretty hard. Death positivity--a movement that encourages people to openly acknowledge and normalize the traditionally taboo topics of dying and grief--is a relatively new subject for video game narratives, though it has been po[CENSORED]rized through indie titles like A Mortician's Tale and What Remains of Edith Finch. Necrobarista joins that conversation but with a more hands-off approach, telling the player a story that revolves around the themes of death as opposed to letting players be a part of the narrative. Ultimately, this is to the game's detriment, but Necrobarista still manages to deliver a genuinely moving character-driven narrative about coming to terms with death, whether it's that of a loved one or our own. As it's a visual novel, there's not much in terms of gameplay when it comes to Necrobarista. Your primary means of understanding its world is by reading its story, which is told in a slice-of-life format that provides a quick snippet of the daily goings-on inside a Melbourne-based cafe called Terminal over the course of several days. Terminal exists on an in-between plane (it's technically a part of the living world but it exists as a potential stopping point before the afterlife), allowing both the living and the dead to wander through its doors. The dead are only permitted to stay 24 hours before Terminal staff must encourage them to move on to the afterlife--whether that's heaven, hell, or something else entirely is unknown as no one has ever come back from it. The dead who stay longer than 24 hours begin upsetting the balance of the universe, which runs up a tab that the cafe has to then pay off. At the start of Necrobarista, the cafe has recently been passed down from immortal necromancer Chay to his protege, Maddy, along with several centuries' worth of debt. An assertive, sarcastic, and loud-mouthed necromancer with no patience for customers who want extravagant coffee orders, Maddy is the immediate star of Necrobarista's story. Necrobarista ditches the traditional 2D-style of most visual novels for a 3D cinematic presentation with clear anime aesthetics, allowing the visual novel to instill a great deal of nuance into each character's movements and facial expressions. Even without any spoken dialogue, you get a good sense of who a person is and how they would sound within seconds of meeting them, and Maddy is the best example--she pulls off a variety of expressions that convey a mixture of snark, disdain, and coy playfulness. This is clearly a young woman who's very intelligent and driven and doesn't enjoy suffering some of the idiots she's forced to serve. Though Maddy is the clear stand-out, this type of characterization is extended to the other main characters you see in Terminal. Though he no longer owns the cafe, Chay sticks around to continue teaching Maddy as well as take care of 13-year-old Ashley, a gifted robotics genius. There's also Ned, Chay's oldest friend and the gruff enforcer tasked with ensuring the Terminal staff ultimately pays its debt. And then there's Kishan, a recently departed soul who wanders into Terminal at the start of the story--thankfully existing as the clueless newbie who has all the same questions that we do and acts as our voice of confusion whenever Necrobarista starts diving into the nitty-gritty of its world. Necrobarista doesn't actually put you into the perspective of any of these characters. Instead, you exist as this passive observer that watches conversations play out. This does keep some of the game's best reveals a secret until the mic is actually dropped, as you are not privy to any of the internal thoughts or feelings of the characters until they're spoken out loud. But it does create an unwelcome disconnect in the story. I feel sympathy for Kishan struggling to deal with the realization that he only has 24 hours left before he must move on, for Maddy turning to less-than-legal means in order to overcome the tremendous debt that's been dropped on her, and for Ned feeling forced to be the bearer of bad news when he's just a cog in a bureaucratic machine. But I don't empathize with any of them--these are their plights for me to see, not necessarily care about or act on. Granted, visual novels traditionally don't rely on the same unique strengths of other video game genres, but in this case the impartial disconnect is a hindrance to Necrobarista's story. The game is only five hours long, and that first hour is difficult to get through because there's nothing drawing you in. You're just watching strangers talk to one another. But mid-way through chapter three, Necrobarista begins to dive into the existing and developing relationships between these strangers, and it's in that insight that you can begin to care. I don't much care that Kishan is struggling with his mortality at first--he's just some guy--but once he bonds with Ashley and Maddy and I can see how his leaving would affect them, I care. I don't care for myself--he's still a stranger--but I can see how important he is to the other characters and even as an observer I can empathize with that feeling. In this way, Necrobarista loses something in its attempts to normalize the concepts of dying and grieving and talking about lost loved ones. I see the characters go through the growth, but their transformation is lost on me and I can't help but feel left out by the time the credits roll, like I'm missing something important that everyone else understands. Don't get me wrong, I really like the story told in Necrobarista. It's got wonderful comedic timing, which is made all the better through the small cinematics between each line of dialogue--my computer is filled with screenshots of the dozens of moments where I had to stop playing because I was laughing at whatever joke, pun, or deadpan stare was playing out on screen. I can't actually share many of these with y'all (even though I very much want to) because they'd spoil some of Necrobarista's best moments. There are some touching moments in the game as well, especially towards the end, and their juxtaposition against the rest of the story's humorous tone results in a satisfyingly bittersweet conclusion. Death and grief aren't traditionally happy things to talk about, and Necrobarista doesn't try to change that--it merely puts forward that the people in its story should be okay with talking about their feelings surrounding their mortality and then nails the execution. Necrobarista isn't all reading, though; there is a bit of interactivity, as certain words will be highlighted and clicking on them will reveal some hidden insight into that word. Perhaps the term is in reference to an unspoken detail about the speaker's backstory, for example, or a piece of jargon that reveals additional insight into the lore of Necrobarista's world. At the end of each chapter, all of the highlighted words will appear on screen regardless of whether you clicked on them or not. Without providing context for how the words are used, the game then tasks you with picking seven you wish to highlight to see what each corresponds to. For instance, a word that was used in reference to Necrobarista's Melbourne setting will provide you a fragment point towards "Melbourne" while one in regards to mortality will award one for "Death." Between each chapter, you're allowed to explore the cafe where Necrobarista's story takes place and interact with certain objects in order to unlock side stories that further flesh out the characters you meet and overall lore. However, to unlock these side stories, you'll need a certain amount of points in specific categories. Rotten Poppy, for example, requires you have fragment points for Terminal, Maddy, and Chay so you need to remember to pick words related to the cafe and the two characters in order to unlock it. There's too much guesswork involved with this, especially if you're like me and have a poor memory. For a while, I tried notetaking, but the process drew me out of the story every time a highlighted word popped up and I had to stop to write down the context. And even when taking notes, you still need to make an educated guess when it comes to certain words--is a word made in reference to Keshin's soon-to-be demise alluding to him or to the general concept of death itself? In the end, there's no feeling of success for picking out the right words to unlock a new side story, it's about as satisfying as guessing the right answers to a multiple-choice test. Not every side story is interesting, either. Some, like Rotten Poppy, which recounts the memory of Maddy and Chay arguing over whether poppy seeds are worthless, are hilarious. But there are a few, such as the list of product reviews for cups in Crucible Product Reviews, that are pretty boring. Given that these side stories can be so hit-or-miss, I gave up on trying to unlock them about halfway through the main campaign. If I happened to guess enough of the right words to unlock a new side story, I'd read through it, but I don't feel compelled to replay any of Necrobarista's chapters in order to earn the necessary points for unlocking them all. If anything, I'd replay Necrobarista just to experience its wonderful main story again. As a final note: I need to talk about how much I love Necrobarista's aesthetic, which goes a long way towards telling its story. I've already mentioned how the 3D cinematic art style helps to both further characterize the cast through movement and detailed facial expressions as well as set up the timing for some of the game's best jokes, but the music contributes to the game's overall tone too. With no spoken dialogue and very few sound effects, the game's soundtrack is pretty much all you hear throughout the entire game, making it just as instrumental (heh) as the visuals to conveying unspoken information. Composer Kevin Penkin sets the stage for Terminal with this soft and yet haunting use of piano in "Confluence," the main theme that plays in most scenes. It sets this relaxing baseline for the game, so it's especially noticeable when a dramatic scene sees all music momentarily stop or a more lighthearted one incorporates an energetic composition. And the song played in Necrobarista's anime-like OP cutscene? Straight banger. The actual gameplay aspects of Necrobarista aren't all that satisfying, but the game more than makes up for that by leaning into the "novel" part of the visual novel genre and crafting a bittersweet story about accepting death, learning to grieve, and moving on. That isn't to say the game slouches on the "visual" part either--its 3D cinematic style adds plenty of unspoken characterization and also better sells the witty writing with some excellent comedic timing. I can't help but feel like all the characters I fell in love with got to go on an awesome journey while I just had to sit there and watch, but the overall themes and storybeats still hit pretty hard as a passive observer. System Requirements (Minimum) CPU: Info CPU SPEED: 2.5+ GHz Quad core RAM: 4 GB OS: Windows 7 or Newer VIDEO CARD: NVIDIA GTX 660 or better, ATI 7950 or better PIXEL SHADER: 5.0 VERTEX SHADER: 5.0 FREE DISK SPACE: 3 GB DEDICATED VIDEO RAM: 2048 MB Recommended Requirements CPU: Info CPU SPEED: 2.5+ GHz Quad core RAM: 8 GB OS: Windows 10 VIDEO CARD: NVIDIA GTX 960 or better PIXEL SHADER: 5.1 VERTEX SHADER: 5.1 FREE DISK SPACE: 3 GB DEDICATED VIDEO RAM: 2048 MB

Zen out, Zen 2 in AMD Ryzen 4000 U-Series Processor Various SiSoftware submissions (via @momomo_us) suggest that ASRock has prepared a new single board computer (SBC) powered by one of AMD's Ryzen 4000-series (codename Renoir) APUs. The original 4X4-V1000 measures 4.09 x 4.02 inches (103.9 x 102.1mm). ASRock bills 4X4-V1000 as a 4X4 motherboard. Given the model name, the upcoming 4X4-V2000 should uphold the same dimensions as its predecessor. Technically, the SBC is between the Nano-ITX and Pico-ITX categories, roughly putting it in the same playing field as Intel's NUC (Next Unit of Computing). We don't know the specifics of the 4X4-V2000 yet (or even if ASRock is definitely releasing it), but SiSoftware entries point to the incorporation of a new processor. Apparently, ASRock has endowed the 4X4-V2000 with a Ryzen 5 4600U chip, which represents a significant upgrade over the puny Ryzen Embedded V1605B processor on the 4X4-V1000. ASRock 4X4-V2000 The Ryzen Embedded V1605B is a Zen processor that's built with GlobalFoundries' 14nm process. The processor offers four CPU cores and eight threads at a 2 GHz clock speed and a boost clock up to 3.2 GHz. The V1605B's cTDP (configurable thermal design power) spans between 12W and 25W. On the graphics side, the V1807B has eight Vega compute units (CUs) clocked up to 1.1 GHz at its disposal. In comparison, the Ryzen 5 4600U is one of AMD's latest mobile APUs that brings together the Zen 2 microarchitecture and TSMC's 7nm FinFET process. The six-core, 12-thread chip flaunts a 2.1 GHz base clock and 4 GHz boost clock. The APU is rated for 15W but can operate between 10W and 25W. It comes equipped with six Vega units that max out at 1.5 GHz. The 4X4-V2000 is a niche product, but given its specifications, we wouldn't be surprised if the SBC starts to gain po[CENSORED]rity outside its market. The 4X4-V2000 would provide a strong foundation for a small-form-factor (SFF) build. It's evident that ASRock or someone is evaluating the 4X4-V2000, which explains how the SBC got into the SiSoftware's database. Therefore, we hope to see an announcement from ASRock in the near future.